


chipped metal and faulty wiring

by MythologicalHoe



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, F/M, Inspired by Frankenstein, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Miscarriage, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-02 09:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17261360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythologicalHoe/pseuds/MythologicalHoe
Summary: Kylo is a weapon, the first real AI made by a rich government politician to protect him, except when Kylo first wakes up, he's horrified of the way he looks, the uncanny resemblance of a machine that's been torn apart and put together too many times. So unable to understand anything, he runs, and falls down into the depths of the poorer man's city. Jakku is leaky wasteland full of thieves and people who can't afford a better life that would trade his parts in a heartbeat, but luckily Rey finds him, and all she wants to do is fix the broken parts that he earned from that fall.





	1. crash landing

**Author's Note:**

> Basically my thoughts for this au were what if Frankenstein was a robot?? And I really liked writing this.

Rey’s home was in the depths of the Corellian City, the ring of the city that could almost constitute as Underground. She hardly ever saw the sun or any green down there, but she made do with the artificial lights that she had and the occasional person that came to her to fix their things for a hefty amount of credits that would let Rey feed herself for months to come.

She tried to stay optimistic, she thought that one day she would get enough credits saved to see the upper city, and she would see the sun. Until then she scavenged for parts to fix and build things that she could sell off to the other paupers that would give her the few measly credits that she had. That was how life went in the Underground part to the city, otherwise known as Jakku. 

Sometimes Rey would sit in her studio when she had nothing to fix and draw, think of stories of better life that she would want to take part of and make more and more drawings in her sketchbook. She never showed these drawings to anyone else, keeping them in the bound leather notebooks that would be discarded by rich people that only drew on one or two pages of the thing before getting disinterested and throwing it down out the window, far into the abyss where Jakku laid. That was about the most action she got out of her day. 

Today was different though. Rey was milling about in the dingy and dark parts of Jakku, looking for stuff that she could pawn off for food when she heard a loud crashing sound. She wasn’t sure how far away it is, but she never heard sounds so loud down here where the only people that were near her for miles were Teedo and Unkar Plutt’s home. 

Rey found herself going off of her normal path, picking through the garbage and rusted objects before she found a dented metal sheet that seemed a little out of place. That’s what she found him. A poorly cobbled together machine that almost looked human, he didn’t look to be conscious, but he was breathing. Rey stared at him as she held up the rusted metal plate that she was holding up. He was breathing, but he wasn’t human. 

That was disconcerting to Rey for some reason, but she tried to ignore it. She pushed the rusted metal plate away and tried to get closer, but it seemed that was enough for the creature in front of her to shoot upright, and stare at her. His eyes were wide and alarmed and he backed up from her, making grunting and growling noises. She didn’t really care about this erratic behavior, but she knew to back away. “Are you okay?” She asked him. He didn’t say anything, and Rey wondered if this creature even knew how to talk. 

* * *

 

He was a weapon. That was about all he knew. When he woke up, there were tons of things in white coats staring at him and poking and prodding him. He couldn’t exactly feel, but the closeness of these foreign beings made him nauseous. “Kylo Ren is online,” One of the things said. He heard the words but didn’t understand their meanings. “His brain needs more programming though, he doesn’t understand much. Also he seems alarmed, which isn’t supposed to happen.” 

“Snoke isn’t going to be happy if he hears that his military weapon has feelings. That’s probably some sort of programming bug. We need to fix that,” 

“We can,” Someone else said, “it’s just a matter of knowing to what extent these emotions go and how we can safely delete them without killing him and having to start this whole process over again.” 

“Okay well don’t dawdle,” He wasn’t sure how he saw himself for the first time, all he remembered was looking into the eyes of something mechanical and poorly cobbled together, and he remembered being terrified of himself, being terrified of these feelings he felt and not knowing how to deal with these feelings. 

* * *

  
  


“Hey,” Rey said, “it’s okay.” She forgot about what she had originally been doing and offered a hand out to the machine in front of her. She had heard rumours of the rich people making AIs but she had never seen one in person. She thought they were still in development, this must have been one of them fallen down. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She made her voice as quiet as possible whilst still being able to be heard. She pointed to herself. “Friendly.” Part of her considered the fact that this thing would be good for parts, maybe she could strip him and get enough money to get out of this place. But every other part of her said that she needed to get this thing out of the way before someone tried to strip him and kill him. 

He seemed to be a little less alarmed when she didn’t make any sudden movements, but he still wasn’t quite buying it. “What’s your name?” Rey asked him. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even bother to open his mouth. Maybe he didn’t have a name. Maybe he was so overwhelmed by the broken parts that he couldn’t think correctly. Rey had to think about how to get him up and going. 

She tried again to speak to him, mostly using hand gestures this time. “Are you cold?” She asked. His metal joints creaked and Rey could only assume so. “Stay right there,” She told him. It’s not like she could understand him anyway.

She went back to where she had started, getting her oil can. Maybe he could use it to make sure his joints didn’t freeze up. She came back to where he was to see him looking around the garbage, not sure how to get down from where he was. She left the can there near the pile that he was on top of and backed away, deciding that it would be best to turn around. When she turned back the oil can was gone. He had poured it on himself and Rey had to keep herself from laughing. He threw the can to the side and tried to keep himself from view. 

“I have more of those at home,” She told him, “I can make you stop hurting.” He seemed to understand that, in some level of way. “Come with me,” She gestured. He burrowed under the metals and garbage instead.

“Great,” Rey rolled her eyes. So much for that. She knew that if she left him there, someone else would take advantage of him. So she turned around and started walking, acting like she was going to leave. She heard a metal skittering behind her. She didn’t turn around, she knew that the creature was following her. 

She kept going, making sure not to make any of her moments to soft or jolty. It was better to have him near her home and curious than to have him out in other places, where people weren’t so kind. 


	2. getting home

After the creature came home with her, he stayed outside as Rey cleaned up shop. She got more oil cans and sorted her wires and chips and things that she could use to repair his motherboard if need be, then she opened the door. She could see a shape in the distance that resembled him almost perfectly, it took only a few moments for him to woosh into the room. She had dimmed the lights, anticipating the fact that he was probably overwhelmed by the rich lighting of the upper cities. This in fact, did calm him down some. He found another oil can and let a few drops of the liquid roll over his fingers. He sat down, playing with the stuff for a while as Rey stood next to door, closing it quietly. 

 

She wasn’t sure how to get close enough to him to examine him until he felt tired, so she waited, and he laid on the ground, seemingly shutting off. That’s when Rey got to work starting to examine the creature. She brought out her small computer that she used to run motherboards, that had cost her a lot of credits, but was worth in the end. All the coding seemed to be messed up, and constantly changing. It was almost impossible for Rey to read, all she knew is that the people that coded him didn’t do it very well. There was a lot of if/else statements that were so much easier to replace with switch statements. 

 

There was a lot of coding that she corrected just so she could be able to make sure that he could function without shutting down every three hours or being in pain. When that was done she programmed a name. Ben. She didn’t know why Ben, maybe something she read in a book at some point, she just really liked the name. She popped his motherboard back in with the saved code and went about replacing the broken armour plates around his interior muscle system. When she was done she waited, if he wanted her to work on him more, she would do it when he had the time to consent to her himself. 

 

For now she would rest herself, knowing that she did a good thing. 

* * *

  
  


When he woke up, he didn’t know where he was. He was going to lash out, to kill the thing that was a few feet away from him. He even picked up something big and long and metal and surged towards it’s sleeping form, but the closer he got to it, the less he wanted to kill it. He knew the thing in front of him. It was a sleeping human, the one that had offered him the oil cans. Maybe he had decided to stay in her place, maybe she let him, but he knew enough to know that killing wasn’t the proper etiquette in this sort of situation. 

 

Especially when she was the first human that had ever showed him kindness. He had to admire that. He dropped the metal thing, unfortunately she woke up and jolted suddenly, scaring him. Perhaps he had been wrong? But as he thought that, her demeanor changed. She smiled at him. “Hello.” He actually understood her this time. How could he understand her now, but not before? 

 

“H-” He managed, trying to find the words. 

 

“It’s okay,” Rey told him. “Take your time.” 

 

“Hello,” He finally said, “my name is Ben.” He didn’t know how he got the name, but it sounded good. It sounded right. 

 

“Rey,” She told him. 

 

“Rey,” He repeated. 

 

“Good.” Her smile brightened the room and made him feel safe. It made Ben feel safe. 

 

“Can you tell me where you’re from?” She asked gently. “When I found you I thought you had a pretty nasty fall.” She seemed so kind, that he had almost forgot about that bad, cold place he was in. 

 

“White,” He said.  _ Words. Words. Words.  _ “It was white.” 

 

“Is that all you can remember?”

 

“Yes.” 

 

She scrunched her nose up. “I suppose that’s okay,” She said. “You have damage after all. But in my house you’re safe, okay.” 

 

“You’re not safe,” He shook his head. He was a monster. “Monster,” 

 

“You?” Rey shook her head, “No. You’re not a monster,” She said. “You’re just a bit scared.” 

 

“Looks like monster,” He said, even his voice sounded like a monster, “I am a monster.” 

Rey bit her lip and stared at him. “I could change how you look if you really want me to,” She told him, “I mean you don’t look that scary but if you’re really that insecure about that I could work on it. If you help me out around the place, would you do that for me? I can make you a new face if you do.” There was nothing else that he could say but yes. This human was being so kind to him and he couldn’t thank her enough. “Great,” Rey told him, “well I don’t need help with anything right now and I don’t have much but you can look around, I’ll make some sketches and think of ideas.” 

 

Ben wanted to ask her if he could get a new voice, but that was too much to ask at the time. He would wait, and maybe after he earned his face, he could earn other things. He would repay every single bit of kindness that she gave to him. He stood there for a minute, staring, but then some newfound feeling got a hold of him and he started looking around. Rey’s house was small, to say the least. But one wall in particular caught his interest. It was filled with drawings that she had made of things that Ben didn’t comprehend, but they were pretty, very pretty.  He stared at the colors, blue and green and glowing colors that he thought would be categorized as beautiful. It was something he should know, and it made him frustrated that he didn’t know what it was. Maybe they were human things that he couldn’t understand. 

 

He would find out soon though.


End file.
